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I see propaganda as very indicative of future conflicts, especially in countries like Russia, where the news stories are more heavily influenced by the governme

I see propaganda as very indicative of future conflicts, especially in countries like Russia, where the news stories are more heavily influenced by the government. I think propaganda is necessary to support a war effort (and avoid insurrection). Think of it this way: If you're a soldier and your government tells you to invade a random country with nice people, how willing are you to fight? On the other hand, if your government convinces you that the target country is full of Nazis that eat babies and plan to genocide your people, then suddenly you're a hero if you go kill a bunch of strangers who never did anything to you. So if you're running a country and you want to invade another country, you better start running the propaganda months, if not years, in advance. Edit: As another example, take the Iraq War. The US and NATO didn't just randomly invade Iraq without propaganda preparation. Bush was even calling Iraq part of the "axis of evil" for at least a year before the Iraq war.

zilean 10y ago
> If you're a soldier and your government tells you to invade a random country with nice people, how willing are you to fight? Ironically Western counties are very good at it.
- kaitnieks 10y ago
  Well, no, not really. Western countries always get a huge backlash for any military activity in any region. This is where the propaganda and state controlled media opinion would be very useful, at least for the military.
  - zilean 10y ago
    Admitedly i dont consume much western media, but i fail to see how this is the case with Syria, Lybia and what have you. Again, if this is not stopping them, why this should worry Russia.
nkrisc 10y ago
The point I was making is a lack of propaganda to support a war against a target country doesn't necessarily indicate that country isn't a target, just that the propaganda machine might not yet want to make that country a appear as a target.

zilean 10y ago

> If you're a soldier and your government tells you to invade a random country with nice people, how willing are you to fight? Ironically Western counties are very good at it.

kaitnieks 10y ago
Well, no, not really. Western countries always get a huge backlash for any military activity in any region. This is where the propaganda and state controlled media opinion would be very useful, at least for the military.
- zilean 10y ago
  Admitedly i dont consume much western media, but i fail to see how this is the case with Syria, Lybia and what have you. Again, if this is not stopping them, why this should worry Russia.

nkrisc 10y ago

The point I was making is a lack of propaganda to support a war against a target country doesn't necessarily indicate that country isn't a target, just that the propaganda machine might not yet want to make that country a appear as a target.